


Closing time

by cmorgana



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Library, Alternate Universe - Never Met, Canon powers, Captain America - Freeform, M/M, Pre-Slash, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, cute Steve, no they had actually fought each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 13:46:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16087334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cmorgana/pseuds/cmorgana
Summary: Library AU. Steve is a great encouragement for kids to go to libraries, so he volunteers in one.Bucky has 70 years of history and general colture to catch up with.The library closed half an hour before.





	Closing time

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt on tumblr. Not sure it's exaclty what was requested, but I've never written an AU in this fandom before.   
> Steve is a fluffy ball of embarassing cuteness and Bucky has an hard time fighting to admit it.

“I'm sorry, but the library actually closed fifteen minutes ago,” Steve said gently, sitting in front of the man still lost in a modern history book. 

Bucky frowned, distractedly looking up. 

“Almost done,” he commented, not really thinking about it, a finger now quickly following the lines on the page. 

And Steve just sat back and waited, because he wasn't going to interrupt him again after seeing him so focused. It wasn't like he had something to do, after all. 

In the end, it took Bucky fifteen minutes to finish the chapter and close the book. He looked up, confused as if seeing the man sitting in front of him for the first time. 

“Sorry, did you say something?” he asked, genuinely lost, while pushing a lock of hair behind his ear. 

“Just that the library closed more than half an hour ago,” Steve smiled, amused. 

“Oh. Sorry?” Bucky tried, no idea what he was supposed to say in a situation like that, but Steve shrugged.

“I've time, and you seemed pretty engrossed in...” he read the title on the cover of the book, “...reading about hippie culture.”

“I'm not from here?” he tried again, uncertain. He guessed it wasn't the most common of the reading and it didn't come to him to tell he was a student, instead. 

“I know, you're the Winter Soldier. James Buchanan Barnes, right?” Steve confessed, ready to defend himself.

And Bucky really went for the knife in his belt, out of sheer instinct, ready to protect himself, except there was nothing there, he had left that kind of things in his past. Apparently, it had been a mistake, since he was now discovered, his cover blown up. He was so tired of running, of changing city after city. But that time the mistake was on him, how many times had he gone to that same library? Careless and stupid. 

Steve raises his hands a little, only his wrists resting on the table, to show he wasn't a menace. The last thing he wanted was a fight, even less with that man. He hadn't approached him for that. Actually, he didn't know exactly why he did, but it had definitely been in peace.

“I'm Steve Rogers, but I mean no harm, nor to blow up your cover, unless you're about to go in a killing spree, starting from me,” a declaration but with the slight tone of an ask. 

Bucky scrunched up his face.

“Captain America?” Damn, apparently it was true that everything always ended in a fight. Of all the people he could meet in a tiny library in the suburbs he got the national Hero. The one he had tried to kill a few times too. Not that it had been really him, but he didn't think that was going to make a big difference. 

Steve nodded, keeping himself from laughing, and Bucky sighed, ready to start the fight. 

“Seemingly it's a good thing if I volunteer in libraries in my spare time, makes the kids want to get in one or something,” Steve explained, still showing his bare hands and relaxing against the chair, “I see you here every day, I get the need to catch up, I've done my own part,” he shared.

Bucky frowned, confused.

“Great. When are we going to fight?” he cut short, he had never been the one to talk between punches. 

“I think I met you once, back in the war, in Italy maybe. And you look more like the man I met there than the man I fought a few years ago and who then managed to escape Hydra.”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment or something?” they actually sounded like the most gentle words he had got in a while, some decades really, but weren't enough to change the rigid posture of his shoulders. He casually pulled off his glove, showing his metal hand. 

“Just stating, you did something no one had managed before or after you, by getting out of Hydra's grasp, and since the first day you've gotten here you seem stable.”

Bucky leaned on the table, getting closer to the man in front of him. 

“What do you want?” he growled, dangerous, “I don't like mind tricks, I'm done with them.”

Steve shrugged. Good question, he hadn't a real answer for.

“Well, I just came to tell you we were closed, but... I've seen you here for so long I'd have noticed you even if you weren't already in my memories,” Steve barely blushed. It was his first approach with a man, his first approach in seventy-seven years, and it also was with a dangerous assassin. Oh, Natasha was definitely going to laugh at him. 

Bucky just looked at him, confused. What was he trying to do? It sounded like the worst attempt at seduction ever, but it would have made no sense. Still, it was too pathetic too to be a trap. 

“I mean... it's not an easy new world and it's hard not to notice you, and...if you need anything at all...”

“Rogers, are you hitting on me?” Bucky cut it short, secretly amused. Oh, he had seen a lot of things in his life, but that had to be the most absurd one. 

That time Steve blushed hard, the red even more obvious on his fair skin, running down his neck to disappear under the collar of his perfectly ironed t-shirt. 

Almost eight decades and apparently he had learned nothing about seduction or showing interest, and apparently he was even worse with men. 

“I was just saying I'm getting good at this job if you need to find a book or...” Bucky's expression called him out on his bullshit, making his face even redder, “or maybe if you want to get a coffee sometimes,” he finished, sounding lame to his own ears. He was so going to run away from the city, change his name and go sell apples on the streets. He couldn't believe he could fight Nazi and still sound so pathetic. 

For a second Bucky fought not to laugh, but then the thing really hit him. The man almost stuttering in front of him was struggling to ask him out. He knew who he was, he had even fought against him, making it out alive by sheer luck, because Bucky knew how good he himself was at fighting, and still, Rogers was somehow interested in him. It felt...nice. Warm. He hadn't remembered that feeling up until that point.

“Why?” he asked, genuinely confused. 

“Well...” Steve paused, last chance not to make it weirder, “I like how you get lost in books, so concentrated and fascinated by the things we could barely imagine back in the forties. All the good and bad things that happened, how people didn't really change, you spend hours just like that. But sometimes you suddenly get...dark. Your face changes and you seem to struggle with whatever is going on in your mind,” Steve stopped, but Bucky face was a clear invitation to go on, “I don't like to see that face, for some reason I'd like to wipe it out for you,” still lame, but a little better. Maybe.

All Steve had now if the other man was going to ask more, was 'because you're so hot I want to fall on my knees for you'. Thinking about that maybe it would have made a better answer than the romantic novel stuff he was actually saying. 

That explanation really confused Bucky. Why should a total stranger care? He barely cared at that point, resigned to live with the darker part of his mind randomly popping up to ruin every nice thing. 

Bucky nods, pushing the book toward Steve. 

“You can put these back, I'm finished with them,” he commented, almost laughing at how Steve stacked them out of sheer instinct, “I don't drink coffee, isn't good for me. Sorry,” he added.

Steve fought not to flinch or pout externally. At least Bucky – that was how people called him before – hadn't laughed in his face or hit him. Such a stupid idea. Probably even Sam was going to laugh at him. He could imagine the jokes during missions. 

If Steve was making an effort not to show how his face fell he was seriously bad at that. Even more than with the seduction part. So bad it was cute. Great, now Bucky was turning into a bad soap opera too. But the man was nice, and Bucky was fighting an internal war but wasn't blind nor dead, he got why women kept throwing themselves at Captain America, men too, actually. 

“I like pizza, though, and I still have to eat tonight. Not a restaurant, not my place.” 

It took Steve a moment to process the words, but suddenly his face lightened, mouth stretched in a smile probably only appropriated from some magazine cover. 

“My place, then? Not that I want to seduce you or anything, just...” he started, excited. 

Damn, the man was cute, in a “second-hand embarrassment” kind of way that had Bucky's stomach clench a little. Like an overgrown puppy, maybe. If puppies were hot and had hard muscles covered in a too thin shirt. Could someone be so hot and so lovely at the same time? Apparently.

“Please, stop,” Bucky said, taking pity on him, and Steve looked almost relieved, “put the books away, close up, your place is fine.”


End file.
